Champion Aerospace Inc.

Cooper Industries, Inc.

Other

Steve John Kempinski

John Cuervo Driscoll

James R Berliner

John DeWitte Cottingham

A solid state spark device that operates as a two terminal spark gap in a CDI exciter of an aircraft ignition system. The device includes a triggering transformer, a triggering circuit, and a control circuit. The triggering circuit is electrically connected to a first coil of the transformer and includes circuit elements connected to supply current to the first coil upon charging of the triggering circuit up to a triggering voltage. This current through the first coil of the triggering transformer induces an output in a second coil of the transformer. The control circuit is electrically connected to the second coil and includes a switch controlled by the output from the second coil. The switch, when activated by the triggering circuit, discharges energy from the exciter into an igniter of the aircraft ignition system.

Solid state spark device and exciter circuit using such a device

An aircraft power supply for providing DC power with improved power quality characteristics to the aircraft. According to one embodiment, the aircraft power supply includes an input filter, a step-down transformer, one or more rectifier networks, and an output filter with a voltage modulation attenuator to passively improve power quality characteristics. The voltage modulation attenuator may use a certain arrangement of inductors, capacitors and diodes to reduce voltage transients in the aircraft power supply.

Aircraft power supply and method of operating the same

A switching assembly is disclosed for a high voltage aircraft ignition system. The switching assembly includes a ceramic substrate and switch die that includes an anode bonded to an electrical pad on the ceramic substrate. The switch die includes a semiconductor device having a plurality of interleaved gates and cathodes, and includes a ceramic cap having at least one gate pad connected to the gates and at least one cathode pad connected to the cathodes. The switching assembly includes leads connected to the gate pad, the cathode pad, and the electrical pad on the substrate. The switch die and a portion of the leads are potted to form the completed assembly.

Switching assembly for an aircraft ignition system

A partitioned exciter system for use with an igniter in an aircraft engine. The exciter has low-energy charging circuit and a high-energy discharge circuit that are remotely located from each other and that are connected by a low-energy coaxial cable. The charging circuit can be located within the aircraft fuselage and the discharge circuit mounted at the engine. The discharge circuit contains passive components that do not need special environmental protection, and the remotely located charging circuit can utilize existing electrical circuitry protection measures already in place in the fuselage to protect against lightning and other potentially-damaging environmental factors. Also disclosed is a housing arrangement for the discharge circuit that allows it to be directly attached to the igniter.

Partitioned exciter system

An inductive ignition circuit (,) especially adapted for use with micro-turbine and other small-sized turbine engines such as are used in electric generators. The inductive ignition circuit (,) includes a flyback transformer (,), a drive circuit (,) for energizing the primary (,) of the transformer (,), and a control circuit (,) that temporarily disables the drive circuit (,) once the transformer primary (,) has been sufficiently energized. The drive circuit includes a switching transistor (,) which is biased on to draw current through the primary (,). The control circuit (,) includes two feedback circuits (,), one of which initiates disabling of the transistor (,) to cause the transformer flyback and the second of which sets the spark rate. The first feedback circuit (,) monitors the primary current and disables the transistor (,) once the current exceeds a pre-selected level. The second feedback circuit (,) uses a portion of the flyback energy obtained via a feedback winding (,) to maintain the transistor disabled for a period of time that can be selected over a wide range of values. The feedback winding (,) is used to provide positive bias to the transistor (,) during switching on of the transistor and is used by the second feedback circuit (,) during flyback to provide charging current to an RC timer circuit (,) in the second feedback circuit. This timer circuit (,) includes a capacitor (,) which is used to hold the transistor (,) off until the capacitor (,) has discharged below a pre-selected level.

Inductive ignition circuit

An improved turbine engine ignition exciter circuit. Energy stored in an exciter tank capacitor is subsequently switched to the load (igniter plug) through a novel thyristor switching device specifically designed for pulse power applications. The switching device is designed and constructed to include, for example, a highly interdigitated cathode/gate structure. The semiconductor switching device is periodically activated by a trigger circuit which may be comprised of either electromagnetic or optoelectronic triggering circuitry to initiate discharge of energy stored in exciter tank capacitor to mating ignition lead and igniter plug. Likewise, the present invention allows new flexibility in the output PFN (Pulse Forming Network) stage, eliminating need for specialized protective output devices such as saturable output inductors. Due to considerably higher di/dt performance of the device, true high voltage output pulse networks may be utilized without damage to the semiconductor switching device. An exemplary embodiment of invention contains a novel feedback network which causes thyristor timing (trigger) and DC-DC converter circuits to compensate for varying igniter plug wear and dynamic engine combustor conditions, tailoring exciter spark rate, output voltage and energy to account for dynamic load conditions. The circuit further includes a low voltage lockout feature by comparing the input voltage with a reference voltage to selectively activate a charge pump in the exciter circuit.

Turbine engine ignition exciter circuit including low voltage lockout

An improved turbine engine ignition exciter circuit. Energy stored in an exciter tank capacitor is subsequently switched to the load (igniter plug) through a novel thyristor switching device specifically designed for pulse power applications. The switching device is designed and constructed to include, for example, a highly interdigitated cathode/gate structure. The semiconductor switching device is periodically activated by a trigger circuit which may be comprised of either electromagnetic or optoelectronic triggering circuitry to initiate discharge of energy stored in exciter tank capacitor to mating ignition lead and igniter plug. Likewise, the present invention allows new flexibility in the output PFN (Pulse Forming Network) stage, eliminating need for specialized protective output devices such as saturable output inductors. Due to considerably higher di/dt performance of the device, true high voltage output pulse networks may be utilized without damage to the semiconductor switching device. An exemplary embodiment of invention contains a novel feedback network which causes thyristor timing (trigger) and DC-DC converter circuits to compensate for varying igniter plug wear and dynamic engine combustor conditions, tailoring exciter spark rate, output voltage and energy to account for dynamic load conditions.

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Seneca, SC, United States of America

Steve John Kempinski